Is this why so much Aramaic literature is available from the Middle Aramaic period? I
would hardly call the writers of 1QapGen, 4Q246(Son of God Text), 4Q196-200 (Tobit),
4Q201-212 (Enochic literature), etc. as non-literate. It seems clear that both Hebrew
and Aramaic were used among first-century Palestinian Jews for literary purposes.

The Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew Bar Kochba letters suggest that all three languages were
put to use in different communities for non-literary purposes as well. However, the
role of each in any given community is invariably determined by an analysis of each
speech community individually. Granted, the present state of research renders this
difficult, nearly impossible, to do. However, I think any assertion concerning the
language(s) of Palestine must acknowledge the immense diversity of linguistic
preferences represented in the literature.

As Cook has pointed out, we cannot yet be sure of diglossic functions of much of
first-century Aramaic (Abr-Nahrain Supplement [1992]). Further, a rather unexplored
area is the relationship between Hebrew and Aramaic in the first-century; some work
has been done on Hebraic influence on Middle Aramaic (cf. "Hebraisms in Qumran
Aramaic" in Abr-Nahrain Supplement 3 [1992]), but I have come across none that look at
the reciprocity of that relationship. These languages did not simply co-exist but
were interrelated. One community might use one way of speaking for one thing while
another might use it for something else. Consequently, to speak of Hebrew as the
"business" language is problematic in that it does not do justice to the ways Aramaic
was used in this way (e.g., Mur 18 ar, Mur 25 ar, Mur28 ar, etc.).

Yours,

Al Lukaszewski
University of St Andrews
St Andrews, Scotland

Jack Kilmon wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu>
> To: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2001 7:06 AM
> Subject: [b-greek] Fwd: Re: Hebrew or Greek? 2
>
> > I was asked to forward the following to the list for Al Lukaszweski:
> >
> > Subject: Re: [b-greek] Re: Hebrew or Greek? 2
> > Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 02:51:20 +0100
> > From: "A. Lukaszewski" <all1@st-and.ac.uk>
> > To: Dave Washburn <dwashbur@nyx.net>
> >
> > Dave,
> >
> > While I fully concur with you that the Gospels were not written
> > originally in Hebrew,
> > I would like to offer a citation that might clarify the lingua franca
> > issue in
> > first-century Palestine and to ask a question concerning your sources.
> >
> > With respect to Hebrew as a living language in the first-century, you
> > might take a
> > look at Rendsburgs' "Diglossia in Ancient Hebrew" (ASOR, 1986?). He
> > demonstrates, I
> > think, quite well that Hebrew was a living language and not reserved
> > strictly for
> > religious purposes.
>
> >
> > Further, what evidence do you have of "virtually everyone" being
> > bilingual? And to
> > what extent do you anticipate that they were bilingual?
>
> I think I would again look to the bone boxes and funerary inscriptions
> for part of this evidence..primarily Greek and Aramaic.
>
> Jack
>
> ---
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